Huge asteroid to pass near Earth tonight

[Swede]

Close,but no cigar.

A huge asteroid that astronomers compared to the size of a city block will reportedly zip by so close to Earth tonight that skygazers should be able to witness it live on the web.

The giant space rock, dubbed 2012 LZ1, is roughly 502 metres wide, and will come within 14 "lunar distances" — a measurement of the distance from the Earth to the moon — from our planet.

At such a distance, the team running the high-powered Slooh Space Camera telescope predicts the asteroid will be visible on a live online feed from the Canary Islands. The broadcast of the flyby will be available on Slooh's website starting at 8 p.m. ET, though it won't be detectable by the naked eye.

The celestial event only caught the attention of astronomers days ago, when scientists peered through a telescope and noticed the giant asteroid's flight path, astronomy news website Space.com reported.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/06/14/asteroid-flyby-earth.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. ............

[undeterred]

2. I'll keep my head down.

[Iggo]

3. Everybody duck!

[JI7]

4. anyone sometimes wish it would hit us ?

[Politicalboi]

5. If on Nov 7th

It's doom and gloom here at DU, Hell yes. It will be a quicker death for some. There's still hope for 12/21/12 if all goes to shit on the 6th.

[cherokeeprogressive]

11. Nnnnnnope.

[Bolo Boffin]

6. It's going to throw our orbit off, dag nab it.

Not by much at all, of course. Give us a little extra speed, maybe. But I don't like change.

[jp11]

7. This is the first I've heard a city block is aboot 1500 feet long.

Here I thought the max was like 500 ft but whateva.

[Oilwellian]

13. Unless...

you live in DC.

[longship]

8. Meh! Wait til ya here about the one next winter (N Hemisphere)

It is going to come within the Clark Orbit (communication satellite orbit) far, far closer than the moon, let alone 14 moon orbits. Meh!

Don't get me started about 99942 Apophis. Although, we still have some time for that one.

But I'll remind everybody that the only reason why the big dinosaurs are no longer here is that they did not have a space program. So let's get on the hump.

The best way may be the B612 Foundation whose sole purpose is to save the Earth from asteroid impact. It may be the only natural catastrophe we can prevent.

Apophis is a lot scarier than this mere rock.
Yes, it will most likely miss us.

[sakabatou]

9. As long as it doesn't go through the keyhole...

[longship]

10. That's the problem with Apophis!

It's going to miss on its first pass, but comes back in 6-7 years. It's orbit is going to be changed by its first interaction with Earth that could put it into a keyhole. That's why NASA is watching Apophis... vewy, vewy cwosewy. <== Elmer Fudd accent.

As so they should.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. Even among asteroids, the size of a city block is not "huge"

By comparison, the largest asteroid, Ceres, is 590 *miles* in diameter.

[Zalatix]

17. According to an asteroid impact calculator, 1500 feet is quite huge enough.

A 1500 foot nickel-iron rock hitting at the average speed of a comet (31.7 miles per second) at 100 miles from you will create a 14 mile wide fireball. I think only the Tsar Bomba, the biggest nuke ever detonated, rivals such an explosion. The thermal radiation from the impact will ignite clothes, trees, and collapse buildings. I'd say that would be lethal to a lot of people, considering that the blast, at that range, will also knock down almost all trees.

Assuming that it is an asteroid made of lighter, porous rock, at a speed of 10.6 miles per second (the low end for hurtling celestial bodies), 100 miles is a fairly safe distance. 50 miles? You're covered in first degree burns.

For more apocalyptic asteroid impact fun check out:
http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/

[Art_from_Ark]

21. The impact would be huge

but the asteroid isn't. It's like saying Mars is a huge planet.

[SWTORFanatic]

22. Ceres isn't going to hit us. It's in a stable orbit. As far as

asteroids that might hit us go, this one is pretty big.

Not huge... sure... the biggest ones that might hit us would be about 20k (ie 40x the diameter). Regardless a 500m would cause a ton of destruction unless it landed in the middle of Antarctica.

[Zalatix]

23. It won't do damage if it hits Rush Limbaugh.

His hard head will absorb the force of the impact, no problem!

[Baclava]

14. We should hollow it out and hop onboard for a ride....a free spaceship for the taking

[magnifisense]

15. What happens to any games that haven't passed the fifth inning if we get hit?

Do the games count? Will they have to reschedule?

[Wednesdays]

16. Close, but no cigar? Damn it.

I had money riding on this date.

[MineralMan]

18. Huge Asteroid to Miss Earth by Large Margin.

There. I've fixed the headline for you.

[Major Hogwash]

20. That's just silly.

Your headline makes it sound like someone named "Huge Asteroid" beat someone named "Miss Earth" by many votes in an election.

Hah!!

[JHB]

19. Is there a bunch of Republican celebrities we can ship to it to "save" us?

I hear it requires a skillset remarkably like those used by conservative lobbyists, pudits, strategists, and billionaire funders. They have a duty to thier contry and their world to get up there stop it.

And those of us left here on the ground will go all out to find a way to bring them back afterward. Eventually. Assuming the funding isn't needed elsewhere.